Merdeka parades
When I was young, mum and dad actually brought us to watch the state-level parades in Penang live....it was a pretty enjoyable experience....we would wake up early to bag great front-line spots....and if that failed, dad would rotate perching us on his shoulders, allowing us to savour a vintage view of the morning merdeka activities from time to time...plus mum and dad were the ones braving the crowd for me and bro...floats and marching bands and dancing and chingay...a very colourful spectacle indeedbut as i grew older (and bigger)....such a privileged seat was no longer erhm...viable...plus bro and i were also old enough to participate in the merdeka celebrations ourselves...i especially remember this joint effort in Std 6, in which a couple of schools in Penang were selected to present this senam-robik presentation for the state-level celebrations - it wasn't particularly easy-peasy as practices were routinely scheduled under the sweltering hot evening sun for many months before the actual event...but despite that, I made new friends and had tonnes of fun! :)
nowadays,we tend to end up watching the parades on national tv instead. Dad would always wake up early and put on RTM 1 or TV 3 for the live crossover...and although we would be doing other things simultaneously (e.g. surfing the net/ reading the newspaper)...we would always have one ear and one eye, at least, trained on the live crossovers beamed from KL and Putrajaya
Particularly fun would be the patriotic "karaoke" sessions....the segments where hundreds of participants decked in the national colours of red, white, blue and yellow...usually waving the Jalur Gemilang enthusiastically and performing choreographed formations....i mean, as much as we used to grumble having to sing the litany of songs weekly at the school assembly...the feeling (for a reason I cannot seem to explain)is a little different on Hari Kebangsaan....hehehehehe....its fun and catchy and the enthusiasm is infectious...especially when my younger cousins (who are primary school kiddos) are around....and am not exaggerating when there are times when the whole family (including mummy dearest!) bursts into song, and claps along with the music....hahahahahah
In recent years...there are also the brilliant muhhibbah drummers....absolutely representative of the melting pot of cultures in Malaysia - different yet syncrhonised as one.
And as I am blogging, now...I am tuned to a spectacular display of confidence from youngsters reciting sajaks and syairs...and now even entertaining choral reading in Bahasa Malaysia and English!! Am sure there are many more amazing and heart-warming performances lined up this morning....a BIG thank you to all participants for making Merdeka parades an annual event, and more importantly, for helping to bring the Merdeka spirit yang membara-bara right into all homes around the country
munsta ramblings @ 8:20 am
2 Comments:
Post plugged. :)
thanks! :)
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